Matie Stanley will represent Tuvalu in the Women’s 100m at the Tokyo2020 Olympic Games.
The now 18 year old sprinter Matie Stanley has had a rapid rise since she first started athletics on the mainland in Tuvalu in 2018.
Tuvalu Athletics Association in conjunction with Tuvalu National Olympic Committee, hosted a Talent Development Camp in Funafuti in January 2018. OAA Athlete Performance Manager, Alison Fairweather, travelled to Tuvalu to assist the Federation and local coaches implement a training program to assist developing athletes.
The then 15 year old Matie, was encouraged to come along and “give athletics a try”. She fell in love with the sport and attended every single session over the 3 week period of the camp, and took in as much information as she could. She was then rewarded with her first international team selection when she was named in Team Tuvalu to compete in the 2018 Polynesian Championships in Tahiti.
Matie loved the experience of competing in Tahiti and has since been following a training program with coach Etimoni Timuani. Her late selection to the team came as a welcome surprise and she is excited to take to the track in Tokyo and race against some of her idols.
Matie will be the in preliminary round of the Women’s 100m at 9:00am local time / 12:00pm Tuvalu Time.
